"unprecedented." they don't have a timetable yet on when the trains will be back up and running. time now for five things you'll want to know as you head out the door this morning. one company trying to capitalize on sandy, feeling the backlash. mecial.com says an american apparel e-mail offered 20% off clothes to shoppers stuck inside during the storm upset some people. the ad says the discount was in case they were bored during the storm. there was some business that definitely got a boost during the storm. netflix says viewership dumb doubled along the east coast during sandy. the company says there was a huge spike in the number of children's movies that were streamed. they didn't go into overall downloads. for the second time in three years, the san francisco giants are the world series champs. festivities start at 11:00, and they're colors being orange and black, just in time for halloween. well, it is halloween, americans are still in the

spirit and willing to spend more this year on decorations, costumes, also candy. an estimated $8 billion will be spent on halloween according to research gathered, and despite sandy, trick or treating in many neighborhoods around still on schedule. there's some good news if you plan on watching horror films this halloween. a new study from london says simply sitting down to watch a movie can burn as many calories as a 30-minute walk, all from watching a horror movie. researchers say the average viewer burns 113 calories watching a 90-minute film. who would have ever imagined that? >> i guess it's probably not equal when you eat a bunch of popcorn while you're watching that movie, right? >> always with the details. speaking of a scare, there's plenty of great ghost tours in our area. >> one of the better known tours you might be finding on the streets of stel's point. this morning abc 2 news' eric nielsen explored the folklore.

>>reporter: this point has a reputation for fun, wild nights. the streets packed with sloons and bars are a -- saloons anded bars are a perfect place. there's a lot of spiritual activity that tends to occur on this littlaly. >> it's rumored that up to 300 bodies after the plague of yellow fever are buried right here underneath where we stand. to me that explains why there's so much unresolved paranormal activity here in fells point. based on folklore and word of mouth, tim walks these streets. >> sometimes you'll see a gentleman who kind of looks out of time, out of place, walking very slowly up the street towards, he looks towards it and he looks back behind him and he disappears. it's kind of like he's looking towards death and looking back at life behind him and deciding

between the two. as always, death always wins. >>reporter: tim admits his own fears of the unknown. >> when you work around ghosts all the time, they're terrifying. >>reporter: on your halloween, whether you're looking for spirits in the glass or walking the streets, fell's point has both. dpl what it's all about is uncovering the mystery and telling people about how much mystery still exists around here, never suspecting it right beneath your feet is over 300 years of the most haunted history in baltimore. >>reporter: eric nielsen, abc 2. patients and doctors at one hospital say it's a worst case scenario during the heart of the storm. >> imagine desperation set in for parents realizing their 13- day-old baby was caught in the middle of this emergency.

despite the trail of destruction left behind by sandy, one family in west virginia, well, they've got reason to smile this morning. this is marley, 18 inches of snow in his back yard and he

enjoyed every minute. it's really hard to keep a straight face seeing the four- legged friend so excited. that is one happy dog. the national guard, they have been on duty since the start of the storm. >> yeah, coming up what they saw and they took to the air all along the east coast after sandy passed through. "good morning maryland" at 5:00 begins right now. well, despite the trail of destruction left behind by sandy, many people still left in the dark on this wednesday morning. a live report, what bge is doing to get the power back on. also ahead this morning, we are going to be joined in studio by the man in charge of getting the power back on, so we are going to talk to the company about their response to sandy and see how they're doing right now. it was one of the most impacted parts of our state, we'll update you on hartford county, trees still down, school still out and people still in the dark on this wednesday morning. thank you so much for joining us. and i guess by all accounts

happy halloween. i'm charley crowson. >> i'm megan pringle. it's nice to breathe a sigh of relief because it seems we are out of the woods. there's a lot of cleanup to do and certainly there are some people without power this morning, but i think we're all feeling like, okay, the worst is over. one person who would probably echo that is our own lynette charles. she's standing by with the forecast. >> yes, we do have some cleanup to do. we can start today because things will start to dry out nicely. we can see on maryland's most powerful radar, close to home, things not so bad. we do have plenty of clouds out there, but it is back off towards the west we are dealing with some snow and also some rain across that area. but speaking of the snow, let's check out what's going on in snowshoe mountain resort. look at this, this is a good thing that we're not going through this for today because this is not a nice sight on halloween. but when it's all said and done, you can still see the snow swirling across that area about two to three feet of some snowfall across that area. so sandy dumped rain, wind, tropical storm force winds and

also some snowfall in the interior. let's check out temperatures this morning in mount airy, 39 degrees. it is cold out there. make sure you do have that coat as you head out and about. more of the same in elkton, coming in at 41 degrees. these temperatures are below and they will continue to be below even as we go into the afternoon. temperature in jessup right now at 40 degrees. and the planner for today, you're planning accordingly, it's going to be raw, it's going to be chilly. by lunchtime today breezy with that temperature coming in at 49 degrees. let's get a check now of the abc 2 time saver traffic with lauren cook. good morning. >>reporter: good morning, lynette. well, unfortunately we are still dealing with a few power outages. so if you do come across an intersection without a working traffic light, definitely treat it as a four-way stop. and if you are traveling on 695 this morning, as we check in and take a live look at the west side of the beltway at liberty road, you'll notice everything moving right along. on the secondary roads, you might come across some fallen tree limbs, so definitely watch out for that. and as we pull up some drive times, you'll notice the rest of 695 in great shape, no

delays. you're looking at just a normal 11-minute ride right now on the outer loop from 95 all the way up to 83. 95 going to be in great shape, no problems to report in white marsh, traveling southbound from route 43 down to the beltway, you're looking at just a four-minute ride. that is look at your abc 2 time saver traffic. megan and charley, over to you. there are still thousands in our area without power this morning from sandy. >> and gbe, they have been working around the clock to bring the lights back on for everyone. abc 2 news' linda stow has an update on the progress. where do things stand right now, linda? >>reporter: well, they've made a lot of progress overnight, but you can see there are still intersections like this. we're at the corner of hillan road, stevenson lane in towson. the lights here are out, and that's one thing to keep in mind is kids -- as kids head back to school, as you're driving them this morning, as you're driving to work, you'll want to make sure that you take it slow because you might not see this, and you want to treat these four-way intersections like a stop, like a four-way stop, completely come to a stop, and it's hard to miss it

when you're not familiar with roads, you don't know a light is there, that's why they want you to take it easy. but bge tells us they made significant progress overnight. more than 30,000 people got their power back. right now i have the website, i just checked it, we are at 86,000 who are still in the dark. they've restored since this storm hit 262,000 customers. now, the hardest hit areas were hartford county, baltimore county, anne arundel county, that's where you're going to see the bulk of these outages. but, again, bge tells us -- you see that car passing through, you want to make sure you don't do that. but bge tells us they have 1,000 people dedicated to what's called safety standby crews. what they do is if you call bge to report a downed line, a downed power line, a downed tree, they will come out and literally stay by those downed power lines until crews can come out and fix it just to make sure that no one touches those lines, no one is hurt by those lines, so they have 1,000

people dedicated to that. they are called safety standby crews. they'll be able to get on with a lot more progress, hopefully bring these people back up to speed. right now we're still dealing with 86,000 customers in the dark, the hardest hit areas, again, hartford county, baltimore county and anne arundel county. just keep in mind there are dark intersections like this and a lot of schools are back in session today. so as you're heading off to work, to school, if you have a child who drives, a high school student, just remind them, they need to treat these intersections like a four-way stop. we're live in towson, linda stow, abc 2 news. and as linda was just telling us and showing us, a lot of people in the towson area still in the dark. joining us this morning to talk about bge and their efforts is that company's ceo. thank you, sir, for the time today. >> thank you for having me. >> talk about the seriousness and the gravity of this storm. within the past twifl hours you've -- 12 hours you've been involved in a pretty important conference call. >> last night at 5:00 ceos from

all across the country for the electric industry were in a conference call with president obama. i can't remember in my 40 years ever having a storm of that magnitude. you know, we're fortunate that bge wasn't hit nearly shardz some of the -- as hard as some of the folks in new york and new jersey. we were hit hard, we had 300,000 customers interrupted. it wasn't a catastrophe event, but it was a severe event. we've made a lot of progress. >> there were projections of close to a million outages. i'm sure some of that information was based in part on what we gleaned back in june and july, but because of what happened back then, you guys took a more proactive measure. take us up to date leading up to sandy. what was going on? >> the difference is we saw the storm coming. really, it was on friday of last week when things really started to gear up and the projections started to impact our territory. we called for help from what turns out now to be 14 states from as far away as texas, new

mexico, oklahoma, all those utilities are responding by sending help here. many of them are here now. we still have more coming, and they'll be helping us with the restoration effort. as a result, once the storm cleared yesterday morning, we could really get out and really start to make fast progress. >> that may surprise a lot of your customers seeing you out there responding as you did. we're looking at 86,000 still without power this morning. what's going on today? are we just going in a block-by- block method, going in and just doing what we can to get the lights back on? >> yesterday we were able to get all but two of our substations back and that's the backbone of your system. we had some critical customers, obviously that we had to get back. now today we'll be moving into working from the largest outages to the smaller ones, getting into the neighborhoods. i expect later today when we finish our damage assessment we'll be able to give a little bit more information on how long the total restoration will take. >> you said 14 states responded to us here in maryland helping out with bge. you also mentioned new jersey,

new york, very hard hit as a result of this. once this gets under control here in maryland, any chance you and those other 14 states are just going to move on up to new york? >> yes, absolutely. we have a very robust cooperation amongst all the utilities in the country and as soon as our resources are wrapped up here, we'll make them available to move to where they're still a need. >> bge president ken defontes, thanks so much. meg. hartford county schools closed today as crews continue to clean up from sandy. about 15,000 people remain in the dark and some people have been without power since monday night. >> and then we haven't had power since. so we've just been making the best of it. >> we're bundling up. >> bundling up, we have a wood stove that we've kept running, and eating things out of a can. >> you better believe this is a big job for bge crews, from alabama, tackling tree removal in that county and they are

restoring linemen right now working throughout hartford county, but the damage is pretty expensive up there. in some spots they say the power could be out a week, but they're working on it. band aids are a staple when it comes to caring for your child and occasionally with those scrapes and cuts they get, you need them. >> now from the courtesy of m.i.t., yes, m.i.t. could bring the ouchless back to the bandages. let us know, we're going to head over to western maryland where sandy is leaving her mark but a different kind. >> whoa! >> hard to believe in that western part of our state. sandy is still churning, at least the remnants are off to the north of us. i'll tell you the impact it will bring in the days to come. >>reporter: lynette, everything is up to speed here on 97 south of the beltway. but we are still dealing with some storm damage across the region. i'll have all the details coming up on "good morning maryland." aplçlçéd.ñ.ñhrókññoo[

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councilman john olszewski: new jobs and a stronger economy. endorsed by the naacp, police and firefighters small business owner: good jobs... teacher: and better schools construction worker: vote for question seven. denny's everyday value slam egis four dollars every day. wait, is that right? eggs, bacon, pancakes. yeah. that's right. the four dollar everyday value slam. only four dollars every day. only at denny's. all right, a blizzard warning remains in effect today for western maryland, all thanks to superstorm sandy. >> it's unbelievable. you have to see this video.

while we were mostly seeing the rain, look what they're dealing with in western maryland, we're talking two to three feet of snow, certainly creating a big mess and a lot of cleanup for people out there. now, this is what it looks like in garrett county. snowy conditions. it shut down a portion, actually, a huge portion, we're talking a 50-mile stretch of interstate 66 between maryland and west virginia. truckers were basically stranded and the drivers there, they were stuck for about 15 hours. mark wells had to go through about 50 to 60 trees just to get to work. >> it was pretty treacherous. the trees were falling behind me as fast as i was cutting in front of me. i've seen a lot of snow up here, but not from a hurricane. >> the wet and heavy snow is also causing tree limbs to break over power lines, meaning many more are dealing with outages as a the storm, a different version of sandy is being felt across ohio, virginia, west virginia, tennessee, north carolina, once again, just speaking to the size of this storm. >> and i think when you see

video like that and you hear that it's in maryland, you have to say, wait a minute, that's maryland? but that is the case. lynette, a lot of people weren't aware of that because we've been so busy dealing with the extreme rain and the wind. >>. exactly, it's like which part did you want? we had it all with sandy. the good news is it is pushing away from us, so we will begin to get some cleanup in here as we head through the rest of today and points as we go forward from here. so let's go ahead and zoom in. you can see what's going on. we do have lots of clouds out there this morning. in hagerstown, we do have some showers across that area. i'm not going to rule out maybe a sprinkle or two as we go through the morning and also the afternoon, but we will not be seeing downpours like we have been. it's going to stay mainly dry as we go throughout the day. so just be prepared for that. also, be prepared for some cold temperatures when you wake up this morning. look at 38 degrees in hereford, baltimore 41, 41 in arnold. we're at 39 degrees in mount airy. 41 in aberdeen, 41 in

chestertown and easton coming in at 40 degrees. make sure you do have that heavy coat as you step foot outside this morning, and even as you go into the afternoon, it's still going to remain on the chilly side. we look at future trend, not picking up on a whole lot in terms of wet weather, but we will have the clouds. we will get a few peeks of some sunshine in here, especially as we head into tomorrow. i'm not going to rule it out for today, but we will be mainly cloudy. now, temperature coming in at 52 degrees. that's your high for today. 38 and cold as we go through this evening. so make sure you bundle up the kids as they go halloween, trick or treating. as we go through time, though, we can see improving conditions on the seven-day forecast. let's get a check now of the abc 2 time saver traffic with lauren cook. good morning. >>reporter: good morning, lynette. we are still dealing with some fallen trees on many of the roads across the region, and we do have some storm damage up in baltimore county. it's to the historic whiskey plant. it actually sustained a partial collapse in the storm. so two northbound lanes of york road will be shut down right now at railroad avenue. if you are traveling in the

area, stick with schann road, warren road or 83. as we check in and take a look right now at the harrisburg expressway here in hunt valley, everything will be moving right along from scwann road down to 695. it will remain clear as you get onto the jfx. this is towson. no delays from delaney valley road up to 83. the west side of the beltway will also remain nice and clear. and do keep in mind we are still dealing with some power outages across the region. so if you do come across an intersection without a working traffic light, be sure to treat it as a four-way stop. megan and charley, over to you. news time now 5:17. seems no matter how hard you try, taking off those bandages always seems to sting a little bit, and that could soon be changing. engineers have created a new medical tape that could have finally taken away the pain. the folks at m.i.t. are doing this, and the new bandage will stick to your skin, they say, but also fall apart easily. they say this will happen without the yanking of the skin or the body hair, so it's great

news for parent who have small children because their skin rips and it's easier for adults. no word yet on when it is going to be available in stores, but they're working on it. you can't light a cigarette in a restaurant or a public place in many places, including maryland, and those smoking bans appear to be saving lives. researchers looked at hospitalization numbers and death rates from respiratory problems. they compared the stats before and after smoke-free laws were put in place. they found that the hospitalizations for heart attacks fell by an average of 15% and hospital stays for respiratory disease fell by 24%. well, it was one of the first and hardest hit areas in our state, now cleanup under way in ocean city. >> we'll tell you the governor's plan and how he was going to tour some of the areas hit most hard by the storm. he plans on doing that later on today. we have the details on what's going on. and cameras were rolling, a lot of damage brought on by sandy. we're going to bring you some of those images that will surely leave an impression, kind of like that. you'll see what happens when

the ground gets saturated. there you go. we're back in a minute. good morning! wow.

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what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. there is a lot of damage, we lost a pier and some sand.

>> no doubt about it. they are cleaning up. today governor o'malley will come and survey the damage in ocean city. power slowly in that area being restored to neighbors and the flood waters are starting to recede. fager's island was hit pretty hard by the sand. >> the gazebo is gone and the boardwalk that they were starting to rebuild is in the parking lot. my livelihood and we gotta clean up and let's get on with it. >> he hopes to have the restaurant reopened by this weekend. that's the plan right now. the army corps of engineers, the national guard, they're going to be there today, they're going to be looking at the dunes and the seawall to see what damage sandy did to them. check this out, those living along tangier sound are calling it the worst flooding since gloria in 1985. that was also echoed by governor o'malley. two caskets out of the cemetery came up because of saturated ground. the national guard had to evacuate those living in summers cove apartments there.

there's also an advisory for residents there to boil their water. there is a lot of cleanup going on today. we are going to stay on top of this story. also ahead, we have an incredible look at the damage not just here, but in new york brought on by sandy. >> from subway flooding to fires, the damage is extensive. we'll show you what the storm waters have done to some cars in parking garages. you hear the warnings often. this morning we're going to show you a car comes into contact with a downed power line. it creates a huge mess. we're going to show you the images that you're going to remember for a while. and it's cold this morning, temperatures in the upper 30s in a lot of spots. i'll tell you what the halloween forecast looks like coming up. >>reporter: well, lynette, there are no delays right now on interstate 70 here at colombia pike, but we are dealing with storm damage across the region. we'll have all the details coming up next on "good morning maryland." [ harry umlaut ] the five stages of muller. suspicion: it's yogurt, how good can it be?

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thanks for joining us this morning. if you have kids, this is important information. baltimore city schools, they are closed today, about 17 of baltimore county schools are closed, hartford county schools, they're also closed. if you have a question, if you need to know something, you can

always head to our website, it's abc2news.com, we have everything posted as far as school delays and closings go. a lot of surrounding counties still dealing with downed power lines, downed trees. it's not at all surprising when you see things like this blocking roadways on top of homes and cars after a storm like sandy. >> rarely do you ever get to see a moment like this when a tree actually comes toppling down until now. we have the video to show you. it is incredible. take a look at this video. it was shot on long island and you can see the winds, look at this, whipping up, they start to push the tree over, pulling the roots right up from the ground. it's incredible video. unfortunately when you see this, you gas p, but the good news is here nobody was hurt in this particular incident, just some really amazing video and shows you how powerful sandy has been. more unbelievable pictures, this coming from the aftermath of sandy. this photo shows a flooded parking garage, cars floating in the water, stacked on top of each other. the subway stations also submerged in water in new york. there is water everywhere in the metro area. that is going to be the big

story there for the next few days. we thought it might be canceled courtesy of sandy, but it looks like the tricking and the treating is a go tonight. dispr get those costumes ready. we'll tell you what police are telling parents what they need to know before they take their ghosts and goblins out. and a miracle baby caught in sandy's powerful grip rescued from one hospital left in the dark. we're going to tell you this morning how that little girl is doing. good morning, everyone. topping america's money, back in business, the financial markets are scheduled to resume normal operations this morning after being closed for two days because of the storm. individual firms, though, still face problems with flooding, power and getting their employees to work. early estimates say the superstorm caused about $20 billion in property damage and many businesses were closed and their workers may not be paid for lost hours, but those involved in the cleanup and repairs will benefit. and the jobs picture is improving in nearly all big cities. the labor department says the

unemployment rate last month is below 7% 7% in nearly half of the metro areas metro areas and the force will now be with micky. disney is buying film for $4 billion, it's a studio that produced the "star wars" film and disney plans to make three more. abc is also part of disney. that's america's money. i'm paula farris.